Alice: Madness Returns / Unreal Engine 3 speed/input tweaks

[InsaneFury]

Out of the box, I wasn't too impressed with Alice, mostly due to gameplay stutters/hiccups and bad (mouse) input settings. Plus, the odd default FOV angle (100).
So, I tweaked the config files a bit, and figured I'd post the changes I made so far here in case anyone else is interested. Note that these settings could well port over to other Unreal Engine 3 games, i.e. UT3 and Bulletstorm (the latter requiring a INI editor/decrypter):
Changed some values in \Alice2\AliceGame\Config\DefaultEngine.ini:

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[Engine.Engine]
Old value:
bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE

New value:
bSmoothFrameRate=FALSE

Added some lines in \Alice2\AliceGame\Config\DefaultInput.ini:

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[Engine.PlayerInput]:
+Bindings=(Name="I",Command="fov 90")
+Bindings=(Name="O",Command="fov 100") ;default

Changed some lines in \Alice2\Engine\Config\BaseEngine.ini:

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[Engine.Engine]
Old values:
bUseBackgroundLevelStreaming=True
bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE

New values:
bUseBackgroundLevelStreaming=False
bSmoothFrameRate=False
[TextureStreaming]
Old value:
PoolSize=140
New value:
PoolSize=320

Changed some lines in \Alice2\Engine\Config\BaseInput.ini:

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[Engine.PlayerInput]
Old value:
bEnableMouseSmoothing=true
New value:
bEnableMouseSmoothing=False

This allows me to run the game void of stutters (had to tone down the PhysX settings, other than that I'm good), with reasonable mouse control and button-customizable FOV (still undecided whether I'll go with "I"=90 or the default "U"=100).
I was wondering if anyone else would have some insights to share concerning optimizations and making this game feel less of a bad console port? Mainly, I'm wondering how to access the console, though in the meantime one could always map a key to "exec myscript.ini" as a workaround. This will then execute the commands from said script, which should be located in the \Alice2\Binaries folder. But directly toying with a console would be nicer.

[jjim]

Looks interesting - Heard good reports about the game . Do you know if the release contains the Alice 1 (2000 in HD) game - I don't think this has any copy protection ,unlike the troublesome new game's protection?

[Trey]

Haven't played yet (what with my 'A' computer being dead), been curious though.

[Meddle]

I have heard that the original was on the disc, but I don't know from experience since I don't have it (yet).

[InsaneFury]

Looks interesting - Heard good reports about the game . Do you know if the Skidrow release contains the Alice 1 (2000 in HD) game - I don't think this has any copy protection ,unlike the troublesome new game's protection?

Yep, it's on there. It even seems to sport detailedtextures, though the engine & polycount seems untouched iirc.

It could be my pc acting up, but it didn't seem to start when I ran the Alice1 exe. Instead, I loaded it from Alice2's main menu & this worked.

The camera ingame was constantly moving right though, so I didn't play it yet. Usually disconnecting controllers would help, but I didn't go into it much.

[hfric]

Looks interesting - Heard good reports about the game . Do you know if the release contains the Alice 1 (2000 in HD) game - I don't think this has any copy protection ,unlike the troublesome new game's protection?

The Skidrow version is the Limited Collection edition with all DLC and with Alice part 1 that has some changed model textures [they didn't even changed the environment textures... lazy remake], but to play this version you need the Crack that THETA made [Skidrow forgot to remove a running Crc check that checks the game files in the background]

to get the DLC you have to edit the DefaultEngine.ini in Game\Alice2\AliceGame\Config\ with those lines GIsSpecialPCEdition=FALSE change to GIsSpecialPCEdition=TRUE

[elsie3]

Thanks for these tweaks. I've only just ran the game to set up the options so I haven't played any of it yet. I recognise some of these tweaks from Alpha Protocol (which needed a lot of tweaking to rid itself of heavy consolitis).

As for the bundled original game, it looks like you have to run it from the Alice 2 main menu. Most of the pak files are unchanged from the original release, but there is an additional one with new character models. The only other noticeable difference is being able to pick more resolutions (including widescreen). I'd already played the old version using the widescreen config tweaks listed on widescreengaming.

I'm not sure if the retail disc has the original game as I think the EA site listed it as exclusive to the digital download preorder (which is where I got my copy).

[InsaneFury]

Bah, remapping the umbrella block to the MiddleMouseButton seems to fail on me, leaving me with no way to block. Resetting the controls to default doesn't fix it either.
The console log states:

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Log: 'TriggerBlock': Bad or missing property 'bActive'

Also, I've been having the cursor icon stuck while in game, leaving me with multiple arrows on the screen that serve no purpose. This game is even more buggy than I initially hoped it would be...

As for Alice1, apparently it can be run outside of Alice2 by calling it with the following parameters: "-INT -RunningFromAlice2"

*edit*
Badass. Though it took way longer, I managed to kill the enemy I should have vanquished with the reflective umbrella. A combination of bombs and swift knife slashes did the job. I wonder if that was enabled by design, or whether this is a secondary exploit that proves invaluable in progressing through the game.

[elsie3]

I haven't had the multiple cursor issue here. I ended up removing the tweaks before playing. Just to see how the game was without any of them. Sometimes those U3 engine tweaks cause side-effects and the multiple cursors could be one.

I have noticed times (usually at the start of a new section) when I can't move momentarily or in one case where I started off by automatically running and fell to my death a couple of times until I regained control. A good patch is definitely needed.

Running Alice1 with those parameters works, but when you quit the game it launches Alice2. So it gets you into the game quicker, but takes a bit longer to get back out. Although it does allow you to run the game standalone, as I copied the Alice1 folder to another computer and was able to run it without having Alice2 available.

[rastan saga]

Edit...